Great practice with the Jags!

Dog park with K

Delivering cookies

Post Christmas quiet-ish roads

Family Christmas plus Ross Bridge plus Hwy 31

Timelapse video - https://youtu.be/6K7WsI-UyrA

Working on a longer write-up with timelapse video of the entire race, but especially with the weather this year the Cheaha Challenge was another amazing adventure. 

I first did the Cheaha Challenge as a college student back in 1996 and 1997 winning it in a sprint in 96 and getting 3rd the next year. 

Then when we moved back to Alabama in 2005, I dove back into racing whole-heartedly and was always excited about the challenge but never got a chance to do it b/c the challenge was tied into the Sunny King race weekend. I'd race the pro sunny king crit on Saturday night and then race the Roswell crit the next day as part of the USA crits speedweek series or the Foothills Road race the next day once the Roswell crit moved to the day after Athens Twilight instead of the day after Sunny King.

When Brooke and Tom decided to separate out the challenge from the Sunny King crit weekend, it still conflicted most years with other races I was doing. But finally in 2015 after getting hit by a car in the spring racing season in 2014 and missing all the May races (including Cheaha which had moved dates by then) and making the decision to switch gears and focus more on long distance racing, I was able to do the challenge again and have done it every year since except for 2020 when it was cancelled.

So let's see - 1996, 1997,  2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025 - that makes this year my 12th Cheaha Challenge. It feels like more than that, but the Foothills Road Race I did in 2011, 2012, and 2013 was also heavily wrapped up into the Cheaha Challenge when we would be lined up ready to race and start immediately after the challenge riders started. So I guess I am tying those memories into Cheaha as well which would make it #15. In any case, Cheaha has always felt like it's been part of my bicycle racing life!

The most challenging of them was 2016, when I added both of the Cat 2 gravel climbs in Longleaf wildlife refuge (Bain's Gap) in the middle of the race and still finished in the top 15. And after finishing it, did ANOTHER gravel Cat 2 climb up the backside of Coldwater on the way home after the race. Check out that ride here - https://www.strava.com/activities/577579716

That being said, I think this year with the weather and humidity may have been the second hardest of all the years despite the course on paper being easier b/c of construction shortening a few sections and us returning to the original flatter section east of White Plains in place of the Chinabee Lake canyon climbs (closed). 

What made this year hard? Well, without the heat I kept cramps under control and was able to push it nearly an hour faster than last year's time.


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Brian Toone

Cheaha Challenge XXL - 6th place in the ultra

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Great practice with the Jags!

Dog park with K

Delivering cookies

Post Christmas quiet-ish roads

Family Christmas plus Ross Bridge plus Hwy 31

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